My New Family
by queerqueens
Summary: Raphael Santiago, single father of an adorable four-year-old girl, meets Simon Lewis due to an unfortunate incident in the park.
It was a Thursday afternoon and Raphael walked towards the playground, holding his daughter by the hand. The young girl skipped as she walked, looking up at her father with a bright grin.

Her gaze then fell to the ground, causing her to pout.

"Daddy, look." she lifted her leg, showing him her shoelace which dangled openly. "Shoe is open.." she whined, causing Raphael to chuckle.

He immediately crouched down, starting to bind them into a proper bow once more, when there was a heavy force against him and he fell against a tree which was behind him.

Frowning slightly when he felt his new jacket rip, he wanted to make sure to go after the person who had pushed him like that, assuming that they just had left.

He was startled to find that that wasn't what happened.

As he tried to sit up properly once more, he immediately caught an armful of his daughter who wanted to make sure that he wasn't hurt.

She wasn't the only one though who was on his level at the moment. Right next to them, knelt a young man, probably only a few years younger than him who seemed to be apologizing over and over.

"Are you okay?" he asked, voice laced with panic, "Do you need an ambulance? I'm so sorry. I didn't want to hurt you. I.. Just.. Are you okay?"

Raphael couldn't help but smile despite the fact that his jacket still was ruined.

"I'm fine, don't worry, okay?" he looked up at him, his dark eyes meeting a gorgeous face, which was framed by glasses and messy brown curls.

The stranger seemed to be relieved at that, getting back onto his feet and holding out his hand to Raphael, wanting to help him up. The young father let him do so, smiling as his daughter turned her head to look at the man. She simply stared at him for a few seconds before holding out her small hand out to him.

"You are nice. You helped daddy and said sorry." she mumbled "'m Benicia. Who are you?" she asked him curiously.

Simon was surprised by the way the young girl approached him from her place in Raphael's arms. "I'm Simon." he answered though, introducing himself.

That was also when his gaze fell to the gash in Raphael's jacket.

"Oh, no..." he mumbled to himself, adding louder then "I'll pay for your jacket, I promise. Just, I don't have money on me right now." he mumbled the last part, feeling stupid for having forgotten his wallet in his dorm.

Raphael shook his head with a small sigh. "It's fine." he said and shrugged, "I'll survive."

Benicia piped up at that and shook her head, black curls falling into her eyes only to be pushed back gently by her father.

"That's your new jacket, daddy." she said and looked at Simon. "He just wants to be all nice, because my daddy is a really nice man but he collected a lot of money to buy it." she nodded importantly.

Raphael chuckled quietly. "She means that I saved up some money. It's fine though, don't worry. I'll just try to sew it back together or something." he shrugged slightly.

Simon frowned. "No, you know what? How about I'll give you my phone number and we'll meet up some time so that I can give you the money for it. I don't feel comfortable with not paying you back."

Before Raphael could protest, Benicia once more interrupted. "Say yes, daddy! We can have a nice day with Simon! Can we go eat ice cream with him? Please, daddy, I wanna have ice cream with Simon!" she exclaimed all excitedly.

Raphael could only chuckle. "I suppose I cannot say no to that, can I?"

He took out a small notebook, ripping out a page. He then wrote down his name and number in his tediously twirly handwriting which looked as though it could have belonged to someone from a few centuries before this one.

Just as he wanted to give the note to Simon, Benicia took it and quickly scribbled down a drawing of a heart and a flower, well, Raphael probably was the only one who knew that they were supposed to be those two things. She then gave it to her newest friend and reached over, hugging her small arms around his neck as she still rested in her father's arms.

Raphael couldn't help but smile rather fondly at the still stranger.

"Just text me whenever you know that you have some time to share." he said, to which Simon nodded. "I'll see you around, uh.." he looked down on the note, "Raphael. Yeah, I'll see you around, Raphael." he repeated properly, watching as said man simply nodded, carrying his daughter who was waving at him. "Bye bye, Si!" she called out, before hiding her small head against Raphael's neck, nuzzling into him.

Simon sighed though a small smile formed on his lips. This surely had been an interesting meeting.


End file.
